You’d have sworn Stephen Curry was on the court. From the flamboyant shooting to the uproarious mood inside Oracle Arena, it felt like a Curry-inspired game. That the Warriors could win so convincingly without him Wednesday night — 114–81 over the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of their first-round series to advance in the NBA playoffs — speaks to the beauty of like-minded thought.

In any walk of life, the most well-crafted systems suppress the individual and function on teamwork. It all sounds so trite, but every sports team aspires to this lofty realm, and precious few succeed. No one knows how long Curry will be sidelined with his sprained right knee ligament, nor do the vanquished Rockets represent the height of competition, but the Warriors know this: They have refined team basketball into an art form.

Victory seemed a foregone conclusion as the Warriors wrapped up the best-of-seven series, 4 games to 1. The Rockets were clearly and irrevocably disjointed, going back to the second half of Sunday’s Game 4 in Houston, when the hobbled Curry retreated in tears to the locker room and the Warriors stormed to a shockingly easy win.

Some saw that performance as novelty, the result of a pure adrenaline rush in Curry’s absence. Was it really going to last? Then came Wednesday night, and the sight of Steve Kerr striding to midcourt before the game to receive his Coach of the Year award. Typical of the one-for-all Warriors, he was flanked by general manager Bob Myers, who has become one of Kerr’s closest friends, and assistant coach Luke Walton, who led the team to a 39–4 record while Kerr sat out due to complications from back surgery.